Computer program product and associated methods for searching a database of objects, connecting objects in such a database, and exporting data from at least one arbitrary database

Abstract

A computer program product has program code adapted to provide, upon execution, a database of objects and a database engine for managing the objects. Each object comprises metadata for describing the object and for defining a hierarchical structure of branches which constitutes the object and which includes relations to other objects. An individual branch has a metadata type, which is selected from a predetermined and limited set of n different metadata types and which represents one respective hierarchical level in the hierarchical structure, and a metadata value. An individual branch may also have an arbitrary number of other branches, of any hierarchical level strictly subordinate to the hierarchical level of the individual branch, connected to the individual branch as children thereof. The arbitrary number may include zero branches.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention generally relates to the field of finding, connecting and browsing any number of independent information objects that may or may not refer to each other by means of any type of attribute or value, as long as every information object consists of at least one data element attribute and one data element value. More particularly, the invention relates to a computer program product and associated methods of searching a database of objects, connecting objects in such a database, and exporting data from at least one arbitrary database. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Most knowledge producing organizations have a project oriented value chain that utilizes the expertise of different line functions to contribute to the end result. Since the expert line functions are using different information systems to efficiently carry out their tasks, there is a need for an information system that can integrate and preserve the obtained digital information i...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0005] Accordingly, an objective of the present invention is to mitigate the above-mentioned shortcomings and to provide a new method for retrieval and integration of any number of independent information objects, that may be stored in a standardized future-proof text format and that may refer to each other by means of any type of attribute or value.

Problems solved by technology

However, it is also an identified problem in modern healthcare, where vital patient information may come from many different laboratory or hospital systems, but still need to be stored, integrated and re-used for a lifetime.

However, they are not designed for long time storage and an open integration between different systems, and they are not easily altered to accommodate new types of data.

Although object-oriented databases handle objects, they are not suitable for integration of different types of objects in a distributed environment.

Searching is difficult since the user needs to know in which class and in which attribute data should be searched for.

Hence, neither of these technologies is suitable for obtaining the ease of integration between distributed databases that is the demand.

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